The Curious Case of Christopher Cantwell

This week the Keene Sentinel published a front-page article about Christopher Cantwell, a racist, white-supremacist podcaster who lives in Keene. Unfortunately the Sentinel’s original version of the article, which appears in the print edition, erroneously claims that Chris Cantwell was a Free Keene blogger. Thankfully, the Sentinel quickly corrected that error in their online edition, as Chris has never been a blogger here at Free Keene. Free Keene’s motto is “Peaceful Evolution”. Chris’ message over the years has never been one of peace, so he never has been invited to blog here. People advocating violence and hate are not welcome to blog on this site.

If you search for his name on this site, you’ll find a bunch of articles about him. That’s because until the last year or two of his life, he’d been a libertarian activist with no known racist streak. Free Keene reports on libertarian activism statewide, so we’ve covered some of the things he’s done over time.

When Chris first moved to Keene several years ago, he was just an angry libertarian comedian who had a major hatred for the police. His then-beliefs about using violence against the state’s agents were immediately controversial among the various libertarians who’d moved here as part of the Free State Project. Those beliefs aren’t atypical of some libertarians, especially those who’ve been directly affected by the police state, as Chris had back in New York, where he was born and raised. However, they were voiced by him loudly enough to get him kicked out of the Free State Project and ostracized by a bunch of people.

Chris in Simpler Times, Acting as Security for the Hallowkeene Dance Party in 2014.

As I predicted, once Chris was able to connect with the Keene police, he started to see them as human beings, just as I had a decade ago after moving here with a similar axe to grind against police. Unfortunately, Chris’ anger shifted away from the police and onto people who look different from him.

A couple of years ago, he began down this road to his current skinhead-racist form and once that happened, we had to dump him as a co-host of my radio show, Free Talk Live. As libertarians, we believe in the individual and don’t see people as groups based on color, gender, or religion. Chris now only sees the group rather than the individual. He’s one of the few people who has turned away from the libertarian message after having embraced it.

As long as I’ve known him, he’s always fed off the hate directed towards him. He’s even said that the more people hate him, the more money he makes. Now he’s more hated than he’s ever been after this weekend’s huge publicity explosion for him after his involvement in the protests and fights down in Charlottesville. Here’s a 20 minute VICE documentary that has gone viral featuring his horrible, racist views.

Is this racist turn just a money-making scheme for him? Others believe Chris is actually an undercover agent or confidential informant for the federal government. While I don’t personally believe that about him, having known him pretty well for several years, I understand why they believe that. He fits the bill for an agent provocateur. The advocates of this theory say that Chris came into the libertarian movement advocating for violence against police, but when that didn’t work, he got reassigned to advocate for violence in the white supremacy movement. It wouldn’t be the first time the federal government had a radio host working for them inside the white supremacists.

Regardless of whatever the truth is about Chris and his motivations, his racist views are despicable and I think I can speak for all the bloggers here (if not, they can reply with their own blog) when I say we don’t support racism or hating people because of their religion or gender. Individuals should be judged on their actions and words, not the circumstances of their birth.

I remember when Cantwell defended you, over heated protests from his audience, while you were being investigated by the FBI for child porn. You don’t even have the common fucking decency to return the favor when he needs it? You’re a scumbag.

Pinochet
on August 24, 2017 at 7:38 am

@David Crawford if you ever seen cantwell’s radical agenda, he has a “Don’t Tread On ME” Flag with gold and black ancap colors that was given to him by ian freeman…FACT

John Q Public
on August 24, 2017 at 11:06 am

I would have enjoyed kicking his ass in Keene. I had lived there for years and never heard of this imbecile until now. Another fcking nobody seeking his 5 minutes of fame.

1776blues
on August 24, 2017 at 1:38 pm

It’s always informative to read what one ethnicity thinks of Americans (not just white Americans like some think) Chris talks about. And while many people refuse to research Antifa and their goals they pretty much seal their future, which will not be good. Communism didn’t work well for Russia but after the Soviet Union collapsed more communists came here. I will say Chris should have chose his words more wisely knowing how the media can and will twist the words. Reading this article is like reading the mainstream media. If and when white’s who advocate for their rights are gone the whites who stood by the communist will be next, Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn found out all too quickly. To this day his book 200 Years Together has not been published in English. It was being translated but so far it’s not all done.

What did you feel when you heard the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, chant, “Jews will not replace us?” Fear, of course. Bewilderment, perhaps anger. But I bet a lot of Jews felt another emotion, which they’re less likely to articulate in public: snobbery. “Replace you? Where, behind the counter at Wendy’s? We’re successful, industrious, upper-middle class. You’re the dregs of society. Replace you? Don’t kid yourselves. When it comes to America’s class hierarchy, we replaced you and your kind long ago.”
Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/380664/the-one-thing-jews-should-be-doing-to-combat-white-supremacy/